Racetracks Gamble on Slots
To Combat Post-Belmont Blues

The next day the scene at Belmont told a different story. Just 5,387 people were on hand and the grandstands were empty. The Belmont Stakes has been getting more popular every year, but horse racing as a whole has been trending in the opposite direction. In 1993, over 808,000 people attended the spring meeting at Belmont Park. Attendance dwindled to a low of 441,392 in 2001, before enjoying a mild uptick in the past two years. For a long time, horse racing has been losing out to casinos.

In the last decade, the number of races in the U.S. has also fallen, dropping from 65,354 to 53,503, according to The Jockey Club. The pari-mutuel handle (the amount bet on racing) has increased from $9.6 billion to $15.2 billion. But the vast majority of these bets -- 87% -- were placed off-track.

Like much of the rest of the culture, horse racing is increasingly star-driven. "They come to see a Michael Jordan, and apparently they'll come to see Smarty Jones," Birdstone's trainer, Nick Zito, said on Sunday. Those who come for the horses shake their heads at racing's decline.

The size of the average race's field continues to shrink, even though there are more horses running and fewer races. The reason is that the average horse runs 15% fewer races than he did a decade ago -- despite the fact that purses have increased by 50%. "They [used to] make them stronger for some reason," says Mr. Zito.

The basic reasons racing has faltered -- it was once one of the top three sports in America -- are not hard to fathom. Casino gambling plays a big part, since it has deprived horse racing of its lock on legalized gambling. And there are more sports to watch on television than ever before. The animals are still gorgeous, but the sport looks tired.

Winning at the track is statistically harder than winning at the casino, and more demanding. "It takes a lot of intelligence to learn how to bet properly, to learn how to read the racing form correctly," says Seth Kupperman, a 20-year-old college student, one of the few young faces at the track the day after the big event.

Like other race fans, Mr. Kupperman believes the track managers could do more for the sport, for example by having the better horses race against each other more often. Gil Spencer, a track maven and a retired editor of the New York Daily News says racing is conflicted between attracting high rollers and luring the masses, and does neither well. "Racing has not established itself as the place to be," he says. Others note that the food at the track is horrible and even at Belmont, one of racing's crown jewels, many of the facilities are seedy, yet no one seems to care.

One solution to horse racing's decline advocated by the New York Racing Association, which operates state tracks under a franchise agreement, is to allow slot machines, the most mindless form of gambling, at Aqueduct and several other tracks around the state. In so doing, the sport of kings would join forces with casino operators.

The NYRA has estimated that slot machines at Aqueduct could generate more than $400 million per year in revenue. This would make the sport richer and boost purses. Race fans call slots inevitable, if a quick fix. They would attract gamblers, but do nothing to popularize the sport itself. "I guess you gotta do it," Mr. Kupperman muttered, as he walked toward the paddock to look at the horses.